Shapeshifter: Power, Pain, and Friendship
by Sonic the Shapeshifter
Summary: A girl is kidnapped to Mobius by a malevolent hedgehog who wants her for her powers. At first, it appears the girl is actually worthless and powerless; but after being yelled at one too many times, her power awakens full-force within her...
1. It Starts

_This story is set as a prequel to author Shelby the Hedgehog's "Anything For a Friend" story. It tells the backstory of a shapeshifter who is set to appear in either chapter eight or nine of her fiction tale. The existence of this prequel is approved by Shelby the Hedgehog. This story contains some mildly violent scenes in chapters two and three. If you feel you are going to be offended by this story's beginning chapters in any way, please begin reading at Chapter Four, at which point things become calmer and more suitable for the K+ rating.  
The character 'Carlee' belongs to me, but the character Nazo is semi-canon, by that I mean he was created by the SonicX team to test drawing Super forms of Sonic and Shadow, but never actually appeared in the anime or games themselves. The actions in the next two chapters are loosely based on events experienced by the author. Thank you for taking the time to read this fanfic, there are nine others for you to choose from on my page if you wish to read more, and all of these other fics are either K or K+ if you wish to read something less possibly offensive. Now that that's all out of the way, we can begin._

Chapter One: It Starts

Carlee stepped off the bus and walked up the sidewalk to her house, standing erect and keeping a cocky grin on her face until the bus turned the corner. Then the smile slowly melted away, replaced by an unsure line. Her eyes lost the shimmery glamour and turned dark as she thought about the day, placing her hand on the doorknob and turning it to walk inside.

"Mom, Dad, I'm back." She called. A snoring sound came from her parents' bedroom; they were resting.

Carlee walked in and turned on her computer, checking her inbox on fanfiction dot net. Zero messages. Carlee shut down the computer and leaned back in her chair; where in the world had Shelby gone? She and her online friend used to write to each other every day; now it appeared that Shelby was missing. She hoped her hedgehog-loving friend was okay. That was the only bad thing about having online friends- if they didn't respond for a while, you'd never know if they were dead or had been in an accident or had simply disappeared forever without saying goodbye.

Carlee flopped onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling, clasping her hands behind her head and tracing the patterns above with her eyes. Where most people would only see swirls of plaster, she saw dragons curling around each other, wolves howling at the moon…

Carlee woke up. It was dark. She rolled over and looked at her alarm clock.

2:00 A.M.

"No! Not again!" She growled and threw her face in her pillow.

She had lost a lot of sleep in the past week due to insomnia and waking up at random intervals in the night.

"GRAHHHH…" She groaned and shoved her face further into the pillow, then twisted and curled around it with her entire body in a desperate attempt to fall back asleep. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and tried to recall the dream she'd had before waking up…

_A boy and a girl hugged each other tenderly, tentatively putting their lips together in a gentle yet passionate kiss. School. The view shifted to reveal Carlee standing in the entrance to the stairwell, where the two students stood watching. Jealousy._

_As Carlee watched, a voice began speaking behind her._

"_You're just as attractive as she, my dear…"_

_Carlee turned to see a silver hedgehog, his quills pointing up in the air almost like Shadow's or Sonic's when they had collected the seven emeralds on gone super in the games. His green eyes wore an unreadable expression, and he wore dark black sunglasses and a black jacket with chains attached to the pockets as decoration. He also had a piercing in his right ear. He wore dark black jeans that pooled over his shoes onto the floor, with a studded belt at the waist._

_Carlee narrowed her eyes slightly, raising one eyebrow in confusion. "Who are you?" She asked._

"_I'm a mystery…they call me Nazo." _

"_Nay-zoh?"_

"_Nah-zoo." He responded._

"_That doesn't sound right…I think I'll just keep on calling you Nay-zoh."_

_The silver hedgehog smirked. "Fine by me, baby."_

_Carlee blinked. "Why are you in my school?" She asked._

"_Oh, we're not at the school any more, babe."_

Carlee opened her eyes. How could she have forgotten…it was the same dream she'd had every day this week. She released the pillow and rolled over with a sigh. Then she noticed something shiny through the window.

Carlee sat up and looked through the window. A pair of eyes stared back at her.

"YAIII!!!" Carlee fell backwards off her head and scrambled toward the door.

The hedgehog smirked and tapped on the glass. "He-ey. It's the man of your dreams." He murmured.

Carlee's eyes widened as she read his lips through the glass. "It's you…" She whispered.

The hedgehog nodded with a friendly grin. He gestured Carlee to come outside.

Carlee hesitated and looked back at her bedroom door, wondering if her parents had heard her yell. A house-shaking snore told her that they hadn't. She face-palmed, wondering how her mother could sleep through that racket, then went over to the window and opened it with hesitation.

Nazo boldly hopped in and scooped her up, hooking one arm under her legs and the other under her back, then grinned down at her. "This is gonna be fun…" He muttered, his eyes glinting.

Carlee smiled uncertainly, thinking the gleam in the hedgehog's eyes was excitement.

She was wrong.

It was malice.


	2. A Dream or a Nightmare?

Chapter Two: A Dream or a Nightmare?

Nazo ran through the forest behind the small house with Carlee in his arms, careful to duck under some low branches and keep an eye out for logs.

"Where are you taking me?" Carlee asked, still disoriented from her lack of sleep and not thinking straight. She had decided she really was asleep after all and this was just a dream; the more logical half of her brain was screaming that hedgehogs like Nazo were in videogames and tv shows- not in real life! The weirded-out half of her brain was screaming "WOOOOOO!!!" at the same time, however, so she was having trouble concentrating.

"You'll see…" Nazo responded darkly, with a chuckle.

Carlee laughed in response to the chuckle, her brain starting to shut down again from the culminating lack of sleep. "I don't remember seeing you in any of the videogames…" She trailed off, "Are you Sonic's friend…?"

"I wasn't in the games." Nazo responded, ignoring her other question.

Carlee's eyes finally shut, much to Nazo's relief. He didn't need any more questions than were necessary. Mephiles was right; she was incredibly easy to fool. All he needed to do was flirt a little and act like a nice guy and she was ready to let him right in her house! The amount of trust she placed in people made it seem like a miracle she hadn't died by now. It probably helped that he'd invaded her dreams and used his powers to deprive her of sleep; he doubted she would've been so careless if she were fully awake. He could see the intelligence in her eyes; this was no dumb blond, that was for certain. But Mephiles had warned him of this; after all, her alternate dimensional counterpart was no idiot. A special kind of trap had to be devised if he wanted to catch this girl.

The original Carlee, a girl who had been translated to Mobius by Mephiles along with a few of her friends, had gained shapeshifting powers upon going through the gates to Mobius. After some time it became clear that her powers surpassed those of the others that had traveled there, as she could use the powers that each of the others who became elementals simply by changing her forms. After a massive battle, Mephiles fled his Mobius to the Mobius where most people who were sucked into a different dimension came to- the Mobius of the Iron Queen.

Nazo didn't have much power in his dimension; the Iron Queen had taken away most of it. But, with a shapeshifter under his command…a powerful shapeshifter with the ability to harness any element with the mere tweak of her form…yes, he could rule the world with such a creature at his disposal.

"_She has a strong character."_ Mephiles' words drifted through Nazo's mind, _"It will be hard to break her, no matter which Carlee you pick up."_

Nazo tightened his grip slightly on the girl. He loved a challenge. He made sure to go to a dimension where Violet and Ash did not exist, where Carlee would be isolated without as many friends, in hopes that she would be weaker and more susceptible to his charms. So far it seemed that his plan was working perfectly. There was only one problem; once he went through the portal back to Mobius, there was no turning back. He had paid dearly to get the portal to this world open, sacrificing half of his already weakened powers to go through. He would not be able to do this again for a long, long time. As long as he had captured a shapeshifter-Carlee, though, it would not matter.

The trees were getting thicker; he was getting close to the lake where the portal was. Nazo sped up, leaping over gnarled tree roots and pushing through branches until he came to it.

The moon cast a serene glow over the silvery lake, and in its reflection a small purple whirlpool gently swirled. Nazo walked into the water toward the whirlpool. Waist-deep in the water, the human girl he held in his arms was just above the cold fluid, save for her shoes which just barely touched the water's surface.

He looked down into the whirlpool before him, his eyes cold. If this worked correctly, and he'd made the right choice, Carlee should remain in human form once she got to the other side. If not, she would become a mobian creature similar to himself in stature, the only difference being in which kind of animal she was combined with.

Nazo looked down at the human in his arms one last time, gritting his teeth. "If you don't turn out to be exactly what you're supposed to be, I'm going to make your life a living Hell." He growled.

Then he jumped down into the whirlpool.

The purple water swirled around Nazo and Carlee as they slipped down through the portal, roaring around the two. The shaded images of animals and mobian creatures flooded the passageway and Nazo fought to keep his grip on his prize to make sure she was not lost in the turmoil, using the last bit of his magic power to put her in a sleep deep enough so that she wouldn't wake up to realize what was going on and fight his grip. The whirlpool portal swirled ever closer, finally engulfing hedgehog and human- and then they suddenly fell onto a hard, cold concrete floor and it was over.

Nazo groaned, rubbing his head and pushing himself up. He felt something soft underneath him. He opened his eyes to see a white furred mobian wolf unconscious beneath him. The wolf had a light pink stripe sprouting from the tip of her nose overtop of her head and along her spine to end at the tip of her tail.

Carlee had turned into a mobian.


	3. The First Change

_Please note that this is the most violent of the chapters and the reason that this fic is rated T for Teen instead of K or K+ like my other works of fanfiction. If you are offended by mild course language (even though I bleeped out most of it) or blood and violence, skip to below the line of oooooooooooooooooo's and then continue to the next chapter._

Chapter Three: The First Change

Nazo slammed Carlee against the stone wall of the cabin he'd taken her to when they'd first arrived. Three weeks had passed and she'd shown no sign of having ANY powers, much less the shapeshifting abilities that Mephiles had described.

He released his grip on her fur and Carlee collapsed upon the floor, sobbing without tears. She'd cried so often and so deeply the past few weeks that there were no tears left to shed.

"B**CH!!!" He screamed at her, "GOOD FOR NOTHING B**CH!!!"

"P-please…" Carlee curled up against the wall, shrinking away from the enraged silver hedgehog. Her clothes were tattered and ripped, and her white fur was brown and bloodied from weeks of abuse. "d-don't h-hurt me any more…"

Nazo advanced upon the shivering wolf, his jade eyes gleaming with anger and hatred. He grabbed her by the throat and thrust her against the wall again with even greater force, causing her skull to smack against the stone with a sickening crack that resounded through the empty cabin. Out of instinct Carlee clasped her hands around the wrist of her assailant as he held her there by her neck above the ground, choking her. Nazo dug his nails in slightly, causing a few wounds inflicted the previous night to open up again and trickle blood onto his hand. After another moment Nazo tossed her aside, into another wall. Carlee fell once again to the cold floor of the cabin.

Carlee gasped for breath and lay shaking on the floor, her multicolored eyes wildly swirling around as she tried to regain her balance. Nazo punched his hand into the wall and stared down at the girl.

"…Why won't you CHANGE?!" He roared out.

His angry yelling reverberated through Carlee's bones, and something within her snapped, her courage returning. "Why do you keep asking that?" She challenged, her eyes flashing with pulses of color.

Nazo kicked her in the side and she yelped. He walked towards the metal door of the cabin.

"Why are you doing this to me…?" The bravado in her voice a moment before was gone, the glowing colors dimming and swirling together around her pupil once again.

Nazo paused at the door, keeping his back turned to her. "You're mine. I can do whatever I want with you." Suddenly he was gone, the door opening and closing faster than the eye can register.

Carlee sat up, holding her ribcage tenderly where she'd been kicked. "I've got to get out of here…" She whispered to herself. The only problem was how. She looked around the room once again. There was a table and a chair; coils of rope near the door. There was also a pile of trash in one corner. Four walls of brick surrounded her and the metal door was impermeable- she knew that from experience. She slumped back against the wall in defeat, wincing as she leaned her head back against the rugged brick. "But it's useless…" She breathed in deeply, closing her eyes.

Suddenly she opened them. Air. The door, the bricks- this place was sealed tighter than a steel drum. How could fresh air be coming in?

Carlee looked around the room once again with a critical eye. There had to be some sort of hole somewhere for air to come in, and a big one at that since the air in the room wasn't stale. She wrenched herself to her feet, yelping as pain shot through her muscles, and threw herself upon the piles of trash. She tore through the piles, digging into them and flinging the miscellaneous pieces of junk and scraps behind her until a small beam of light shone up through the garbage. Carlee winced at the brightness compared to the dim lighting in the room, but kept digging until she had completely uncovered the hole.

It was half a foot wide, and took up the height of maybe three bricks. Far too small for anything bigger than a rabbit to fit through. If the floor weren't concrete she might've been able to dig and make it bigger.

"I'm never gonna get out of here…" Carlee raised her head to the ceiling and howled with grief, scratching at the concrete floor in desperation. Suddenly her skin began itching as she howled, and she broke off, scratching at her body. Within seconds she felt her nails scratch fur instead of skin, and suddenly her joints wouldn't bend to scratch her arms any more.

Carlee fell to the ground and writhed as her mouth elongated and her fingers shrank. Her tattered clothing fell to the ground around her, and the world seemed to grow in size. The itching stopped. Carlee rolled over to her stomach. She tried to rise up to her hind legs, but fell to all fours once again. She tried to reach up to rub her head with her paw, but had to bend her head down to do so. She craned her neck around to look at herself. She had become a pure white wolf with a light pink stripe extending from her nose to the tip of her tail- only instead of bipedal like she had been before, she was now a quadruped.

"What?!" The sound of her own voice startled her; she sounded the same as she always had…with everything else that had changed she had not expected for her vocal cords to remain unchanged. Was this what Nazo had meant when he had yelled at her to change?

She looked back at the coils of rope by the door. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to let him find out…She looked back at the hole.

"I sure hope wolves aren't the only thing I can become…" She concentrated, closing her eyes and breathing in and out slowly, trying to change forms to a squirrel so she could get through the hole in the wall.

It didn't work.

When she opened her eyes she was still a wolf. "Then how did I—" She broke off with a gasp as she heard the doorknob turn and Nazo's voice.

"I'm back. I may have found some use for you after all, you worthless mutt…" He was saying, outside the door.

Carlee's heart pounded and she looked back at the hole.

Nazo opened the door, cracking his knuckles as he walked in and slammed the door behind him. He looked around. "Hiding, huh? One beating wasn't enough for you?"

oooooooooooooooooooooo

Carlee bounded through the grass and into the forest beyond the brick cabin. For some reason, though she hadn't been able to turn into a rabbit before, when Nazo had started opening the door she shrank immediately into a floppy-eared rabbit. With any luck she'd be far away before Nazo discovered what had happened. Unfortunately, changing forms didn't heal any of the cuts or clean any of the dirt out of her fur, and the pain of running with unused muscles was putting serious strain on the little bunny, never mind that they were sore already.

Thunder rumbled above as angry gray clouds rolled in, casting darkness upon the world below. A cold wind blew through the trees as the little rabbit ran, leaves crackling underneath her feet and burrs sticking into her coat, adding to her misery. Still she kept running, determined to put as much distance between herself and Nazo as she could, and she broke through the other side of the forest as rain began pouring down.

Carlee looked at her surroundings. A wide open field lay before her and there was a house on the opposite side of the field from her. Blood pounded in Carlee's ears and lightning crackled overhead.

_The house…_ Carlee thought, _if I can get near the house then I won't get wet…_

Spots flashed in Carlee's vision as she used the last bit of her strength to slog through the wet grass towards the house. The past few weeks all she'd been given to eat were some crackers and water; it didn't give her enough energy to go on. She fell about halfway through the field, collapsing in a patch of tall grass, face=first into the muddy ground. Thunder boomed above, and then for the shapeshifter rabbit, the world went black.


	4. The Fox's New Pet

_Nick belongs to Baron Von Beef Dip, for he owns himself. Shelby and Matt belong to Shelby the Hedgehog, because she owns herself…and PWNS HER LIL' BRO! HAHAHA! Oh; and by the way, I belong to me. Now, anyway. For a while I really was owned by Nazo, though luckily he didn't know me in real life….he just controlled me and my life through the computer. He dictated who I could talk to (which was essentially no one but him) and made me come online at certain times. By made me I mean he literally forced me to. If I didn't he'd yell at me; things like what I put in the last chapter…only way worse. He isolated me, terrorized me, and all under the guise of love. I don't own the idea of Nazo the Hedgehog, nor the man this fanfiction's Nazo is based off of. And I'm really glad that he no longer owns me. If anyone reading this is thinking that the last couple chapters sounded really violent towards character-me, well, believe me; if Nazo had gotten ahold of me in real life, then I think that he would've done everything that I mentioned in the past two chapters- and a whole lot more. ::shudders:: Never stay in abusive relationships, readers, even if the person is or was very close to you. It's not worth it. Trust me._

_All characters mentioned in this chapter are used with permission. Except from the person I based Nazo off of in this. But I'm not asking for his permission with good reason- and if you can't figure out that reason after reading to this point then WOW!!! _

Chapter Four: The Fox's New Pet

_**Nick's Point of View**_

"GET BACK HERE!!! NICK, I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!" I heard Shelby yell as I slid under the door, my body thin as a sheet of paper, then popped back into 3-D. Man, I love my cartoonish powers!

Unfortunately, not all people are too fond of them- for example, Shelby, who just can't take a joke. Green eggs and ham sounded delicious to me! Shelby just can't appreciate fine art I suppose.

Matt started to hop out the window after me, but the poor black-and-green armadillo was yanked back through the window by the foot by his older sister almost immediately.

"Nuh-uh, lil bro! You scratch up the paint on the windowsill again and I'mma kill you!" Shelby's voice carried across the field to my sensitive fox-ears.

Oh- by the way, my name's Nick. I'm a yellow fox with a brown spot on my forehead above my eyes. I'm a pretty laid-back guy in terms of human relations- I can get along with just about everyone! Most importantly, I'm a big fan of pre-1960's animation (I've also been practicing drawing to make my own cartoons, and have been collecting a lot of classic cartoon collections and DVDs for entertainment/historical purposes, as well as reference material), especially if it's Classic Disney. That's also probably why, when I crossed into this world, I gained the powers that I did- the power to do random, insanely funny and awesome cartoon-things!

Another thing: My power seems to rub off on the people around me- unfortunately, Shelby now has the ability to pull out giant cartoon mallets at will because of me. Thus, I must run!

-OOF! I tripped over something and went flying, even though I didn't trip that badly. Sometimes that whole cartoonish power can work against me, heh.

I got up and rubbed my head, looking back through the grass to see what I tripped over. That's when I noticed it; the metallic scent of dried blood hanging in the air. I got up and walked through the tall grass and pushed through it to find what looked like a drowned rabbit lying on its side.

I yelped in surprise when I saw it- the thing was covered in deep scratches and patches of dried blood. There were thorny burrs stuck in its side and its eyes were closed. It was dirty and it sure looked dead…but though the bloody scent was strong in the air, it didn't carry the stink of death. I looked closer and could see its side moving up and down slightly; it was breathing, but shallowly.

I gently picked up the little bunny and curled it up against my chest, holding its hind feet with one hand and wrapping my other arm around it so it wouldn't fall out of my arms.

"SHELLLLBYYYY!!!" I called, running back toward the house with my feet whirling like propellers.

_**Carlee's Point of View**_

"_It looks dead."_

"_Thank you, Captain Obvious."_

"_I found it outside. It's still alive; but it seems like it's only just barely."_

I opened my eyes slightly at the sound of the three different voices, wincing at the intensity of the bright light.

"Hey, it's opening its eyes!"

I blinked and opened my eyes fully. Three creatures towered above me- hedgehog, a fox, and an…armadillo?

Oh crud. Where the heck am I? The hedgehog reached her hand toward me and I flinched, curling up a little and shrinking away from her in fear. Then I felt my forehead being gently stroked. I opened one eye tentatively, then the other to look up at her,shivering.

"It looks pretty scared." The fox said, "The whites of its eyes are showing."

I looked at the fox in confusion. He looked like Tails, but he didn't sound like Tails. And there was a brown spot above his eyes. And the hedgehog looked like Sonic, but it was a girl. I had no comment on the armadillo. Is he supposed to be this world's twisted version of Knuckles or something? Man, I miss my room…my parents…my siblings. I used to dream about coming to Sonic's world but so far it's been more like Hell than Heaven…

"It's scared of Shelby's ugly face." The armadillo said.

The hedgehog smacked him.

_Shelby? Like…my online friend Shelby, who disappeared?_

"It's really dirty." the hedgehog girl said, dodging when the armadillo hit back at her.

_No…that's impossible…it'd be great if it was…but it was a total fluke I ended up here in the first place, there's no way I'd get that lucky, not with all that's already happened…_

"Do rabbits…do we wash them in a tub like dogs?" The fox asked in concern.

"I think they clean themselves, like cats do…but those cuts look pretty bad, and if those burrs got in its mouth it could hurt it more, so I think it probably would be better if we just ran some hot water and scrubbed its fur clean instead." The hedgehog…Shelby? Said.

"So we can keep it?" The fox asked excitedly.

"Well…why not? But we'll have to keep it away from Mei and Wow." Shelby replied, "And it's your responsibility, Nick, not mine this time."

The fox, Nick apparently, pulled a face- literally. His eyes bugged out along with his teeth in a crazy, over-exaggerated buck-toothed grin! I jumped and fell off of the table, falling on my back on the floor with a squeak of painful surprise.

"ACK! Don't let it get loose in the house!" Shelby yelped, diving for me.

I jerked away with her, eyes rolling wildly in my head as I leaped away from her and the armadillo's grasping hands. I saw an open window and leaped for it- but was caught in midair by the fox, who held me closely to him, saying "Who-o-oa, little bunny, we aren't gonna hurt ya."

I kicked, trying to get free, but he held my feet firmly, keeping me secure in his arms.

"Thank God you caught it, Nick- those things are like greased lightning when they're let loose." Shelby feigned wiping sweat off her forehead.

"Let's name it 'Greasy'" The armadillo suggested.

Shelby's ears flicked down in annoyance that plainly showed on her face. "You are _really_ pushing it today, Matt." She said, looking at the armadillo tiredly.

"Whaaaaat?" Matt responded, grinning wickedly, "Like you said, greased lightning, right? And its fur_ is_ pretty greasy lookin'."

"Let's get the washtub out." Shelby muttered, waving her hand in the air dismissively and turning away from the black-green armadillo.

_**Shelby's Point of View**_

God, little brothers can be so AGGRAVATING! The rabbit squeezed its eyes tightly shut as I scrubbed its forehead with my chao's brush. The soapy water was brown with dirt and pieces of dead grass floated around the rabbit. To tell the truth at first I'd thought it was a brown spotted bunny, with the amount of crud on it. But the more I scrubbed its fur, the whiter it seemed to become. Finally I pulled it out of the soapy tub and put it inside of the sink, turning on the water tap and running it over top of the bunny as I gently ran my fingers through its silky fur to get the soap out. It seemed a little calmer now, but its eyes showed its true emotions. It's weird. Most small animals have beady eyes and if anything their emotion is a blank, unknowing happiness. This rabbit though; it actually had colored irises in its eyes, and it seemed troubled.

Odd thing is that I've never seen any creature with eyes quite like that. I turned off the water and picked it up out of the sink, looking at its eyes a little closely. Blue, green…yellow, red, purple? Wait- that's like the whole rainbow! Especially since where the red and yellow bits touch there's a line of orange…

"Um, Shelby? The towel's right here?" Nick's voice to my left startled me out of my thoughts, and I handed the bunny to him.

Nick placed the bunny on the counter and toweled it off gently, lifting the towel to reveal a pure white rabbit, save for the tips of its ears where it looked like it had been dipped in light pink die, along with the upper side of its tail and pads of its feet.

"Strange coloring for a rabbit, isn't it?" Nick inquired, throwing the towel off to the side and watching the rabbit, who was staring at us with wide eyes.

"Like a Lilac-Point cat, kinda, yeah. Check out her eyes." I told him.

Nick leaned in to look- then stood straight up again and looked down at me. He's taller than I am despite the age difference, but to me that's ok. I can still beat him up, heh heh heh…

"How do you know it's a girl?" He asked.

"It's got pink on it. If it were a male rabbit, it woulda killed itself by now." I replied with a chuckle.

Nick laughed back at me; he and I share the same sense of humor. I get along better with him than I do with my own brother- who, at the moment, was lying on the couch watching television, having decided that bathing prospective pets wasn't interesting enough for him.

"What do we name it then?" He asked, "Lilac? Flower, like the skunk in Bambi?"

Nick loved Bambi, as did I though not to the same extent, but I didn't think naming a rabbit after a skunk was the greatest idea in the world. The rabbit didn't seem too pleased with the name either, actually; she wrinkled her nose at it and wore a disgusted look on her face.

"How about Snowene, like Kimba's mother in Jungle Emperor Leo?" I suggested as an alternative.

The rabbit's floppy ears perked forward at the name.

"Seems like she likes the name." Nick responded, looking down at the bunny.

AHA! So I'm not going crazy! He's picking up on the rabbit's emotions too! "So her name'll be Snowene then. Snowy for short." I said.

"Sounds good to me." Nick grinned, picking up the bunny and petting it.

"Let's get some bandages on her legs and some medicine on her cuts before any infection gets in them." I said.

"All right." Nick said, hugging the rabbit to his chest.

I smiled. I'd always loved my two chao, but Nick had never thought of adopting any. Maybe Snowy'll be good for him. He's always loved animals. As long as Mei and Wow don't find her and kiss her life away, Snowene'll be a great pet for him.


	5. One Strange Rabbit

_Nick belongs to Baron Von Beef Dip, for he owns himself. Shelby and Matt belong to Shelby the Hedgehog, because she owns herself…and PWNS HER LIL' BRO! HAHAHA! Oh; and by the way, I belong to me. Though at this point I seem to be Nick's pet (Eep!) Mei, Wow, and Calcifa also belong to Shelby. And the house. And everything in it. The field outside too. Let's suffice it to say SHE R TEH RULER OF TEH UNIVURSE!!!11!_

Chapter Five: One Strange Rabbit

_**Carlee's Point of View**_

The more time I spent with them the more irresolute I became of whether this hedgehog girl wasn't really the Shelby I knew online. A lot of things matched; she had a little brother named Matt and a friend named Nick. But then, those names are a lot more common than my own. If her name was Patricialynn or Seliniana or something else random like that then maybe it'd be a surer bet that the hedgehog was the girl I knew. But there were probably a ton of Shelby's with brothers named Matthew. And I've known many people named Nick.

And with the way my luck was going in this world, it seems out of place for such a lucky thing as finding the Shelby I knew here. Though the hedgehog girl leaping outside of the living room window and into the yard was definitely a lot like her.

The fox, Nick, was currently hauling me up the stairs, chasing after the armadillo named Matt, who claimed to be a ninja from the "Hidden Leaf Village"

No idea what that's all about. Leaves are fun to hide in though, piles of them. It's always a chore to pull them out of your hair afterward though. Maybe it had to do with the tv show he was watching before Shelby walked in the living room with Nick and me.

"So, how's Greasy?" He'd asked, chomping noisily on a piece of gum.

"Her name's Snowy." Nick had said, holding me out to present me to the bored armadillo.

"That's great." Matt replied, turning up the volume on the tv without taking a glance at me.

Shelby frowned at him. "Where did you get that gum?" She'd asked.

"Your purse."

"MATT! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO GO IN THERE!"

"Why not? Afraid I'm gonna see your special picture of Sonic with the hearts all over it?" Matt taunted, pulling out a photograph from behind his back and waving it in the air.

"GIVE IT BACK!!!" Shelby shrieked, lunging at him.

Matt jumped over the back of the sofa and took off, and he and the hedgehog ran around the living room like couple of whirlwinds while I watched with large round eyes, my whiskers twitching.

Nick looked down at me. "Maybe it'd be better if we went upstairs, Snowy…" He suggested, though I know he was mostly saying the statement to himself than actually to me. After all, as far as he knows, I'm just a bunny. Same goes for the other two.

Matt tossed the picture outside and open window and leaped over an old stuffed armchair, dashing toward the stairs with a cry of "NO ONE CAN CATCH A NINJA FROM THE HIDDEN LEAF VILLAGE, FOOL!"

Shelby leapt out the window after her picture, ignoring her younger brother's statement and saying only in response, "IF THE WIND BLOWS IT AWAY, YOU'RE DEAD!!!"

And that brings us to where we are now; only at this point Nick's gotten me up the stairs and we're all in Matt's room (I think, anyway) except of course for Shelby.

"Greasy looks pretty fluffy now." Matt said, petting me between my ears.

I resisted the urge to bite him.

"Again, her name's Snowy." Nick replied, leaning back against the wall from where he was sitting on the floor, "Well, Snowene actually, but I prefer Snowy cuz' it rhymes with Bambi."

Matt shook his head. "You have GOT to watch some anime, dude."

Nick wrinkled his nose in disgust. "You have no appreciation for fine animation." He replied.

"Speak for yourself!" Matt said, tying a black band with a piece of paper taped onto it on his head.

I looked closer and saw a poorly drawn leaf on the paper.

"IT'S NINJA TIME!" The armadillo shouted, jumping up and taking a battle stance.

"HWAAAAA…" Nick jumped up as well, taking a fighting pose opposite to Matt's, his tail wagging in excitement.

"We-will-see, who- has the poorer judgement-in videos!" Matt said, breaking his words into separate pieces of sentence from each other like some of the older Japanese translated cartoons' characters did.

"SWOOPING ALLIGATOR!"

"ROLLING TURTLE!"

"GRACEFUL GAZELLE!"

"RANDOM TERMITE!"

"THAT IS NOT A POSE!"

"I DO NOT CARE!"

"PREPARE TO MEET YOUR MATCH!"

"Oh, sweet, when did Chuck Norris get here?"

I crawled away, floppy ears trailing along the ground as I slunk underneath Matt's bed. I never have been one for karate…

_**Shelby's Point of View**_

_I take care of them, I clean for them, I slave over a hot stove in the morning and at night for them and what do I get in return? Nothing! I don't get no respect, no respect at all. They could at least set the table_, I lamented as I set out three plates on the table.

"DINNER IS READY!!!" I called up the stairs to them.

It took Matt and Nick less than two seconds- I counted- to race down the stairs and sit in their chairs, napkins tied around their necks and tongues hanging out comically. Well, not really- except in Nick's case- but their expressions were those of coyotes in an overcrowded chicken coop.

"So where's the grub?" Matt asked immediately.

"Geeze, patient much?" I asked, forking a steak onto his plate.

He picked it up with his hands and bit into it with a growl, pulling at it hungrily with his teeth. Too bad he won't be able to eat it. That's a rubber steak, heheheh…That'll teach him not to go in my purse! I forked a real piece of steak onto Nick's plate and the yellow fox immediately stuck his fork and knife into it, slicing and dicing it so fast it looked like he had eight arms. Maybe he did; his cartoon powers are a sight to behold.

I started to put a slab of steak on my own plate when a thought struck me. "Where's Snowy?" I asked, looking at Nick with one ear slightly down in question.

Nick stopped shoveling steak bits into his mouth, his jaw hanging open. "Huh? Oh, right!" He jumped up and dashed out of the room and up the stairs.

I face-palmed. Snowene'll probably end up being my responsibility just like Mei and Wow at this rate. Then again maybe I'm not giving Nick enough credit. He probably only forgot because he's not used to having a pet. Yeah…I'm sure he'll remember after a week or two with Snowy by his heels.

I sat down and cut into my steak, stabbing a cube and popping it into my mouth. The blend of herbs and spices I'd simmered it in burst in my mouth like a popping firework, the many flavors blending together for an out of this world taste. I savored the flavor with joy. Damn, I'm a good cook!

I eyed my brother again. His growls reverberated through the room as he fought to tear off a bite of the steak. He completely ignored me, focused entirely on his task. I wonder when he'll figure it out…

_**Nick's Point of View**_

"There you are, Snowy!" I reached under the bed and pulled out the white-and-pink rabbit, standing up and cuddling her to my chest, "What were you doing under Matt's bed? That's where he puts magazines, not rabbits, silly thing."

I swear she rolled her eyes at me! I swear it! But the fact that she did I find hilarious, so I just chuckled and ruffled her ears.

"Ok, girl. Time for dinner." I ran out of Matt's room and jumped on the banister, sliding down it like a grinding rail and jumping over the post with the ball at the bottom of it to land in front of the door. Then I spun around and raced past the staircase into the kitchen, leaping into my seat in record time.

Matt was still chomping on the same piece of steak and didn't look like he'd gotten any further in eating it, so I figure all in all I must've taken less than a minute to find Snowy.

"Wow, ten minutes? Where did you go, Cleveland?"

I looked over at Shelby to notice half of her steak missing. She popped another piece into her mouth. I grinned lopsidedly and held up the bunny. "I found Snowy?"

"Okay, cool. I made some salad for her. It's in a bowl over on the counter." Shelby said, nodding her head toward the counter.

"Awesome!" I got up with Snowy in my arms and walked over toward the counter.

Snowy reached her paws out over my arm and reached toward the table like they were magnetized to it. I took another glance at what was on it but I couldn't see anything on there that bunnies would enjoy eating. So I grabbed the bowl of salad and put it and her on the floor. "Eat up, Snowy!" The rabbit glared at me. That thing has expressions like you wouldn't believe! Or maybe I'm psychic now? I think I know how she's feeling though.

As a mobian fox I'd hate to eat salad when steak was an option. Then again, rabbits don't eat meat… Yeah, I'm probably just imagining things.

I walked back to the table and began eating my steak; Snowy's eyes pinned on me the whole way. I forked a cube of my steak into my mouth and chewed. It was okay. Shelby's not the greatest cook in the world but her stuff's edible. I glanced over at Snowy a few times, the last time I jumped slightly because of the look in her eyes. She hadn't touched the salad. Her eyes followed the steak cube as I moved my fork back and forth in my hand.

"What are you doing?" Shelby asked me, leaning back in her chair.

"I think Snowy wants some of the steak." I said. Snowy's ears seemed to perk up when I said it.

Shelby looked over the back of her chair at Snowy, then turned back to the table. "Nah, Snowy's an herbivore. They don't eat meat."

If looks could kill, I think Shelby would be dead right now the way Snowy stared at her. Then her nose twitched and she looked up at the countertop.

"Of course, _some_ people will eat _anything_." Shelby cast a glance at her younger brother, who had finally just swallowed the last bit of his steak whole.

Shelby seemed to freeze, staring at Matt with wide open eyes. The armadillo looked at her with a bored expression.

"Man, Shelby, you suck at cooking. Everything you make tastes like rubber." He said.

Shelby didn't respond; she seemed shocked about something. I don't know why though. She's seen him swallow things whole before just like I have.

"Is there any more left though?" Matt inquired, cocking his head to the side at Shelby.

"Yeah…in the pan on the stove…" Shelby said slowly, staring at Matt with a sickened expression. As Matt got up to go to the stove, she snapped out of her daze and said "But I don't know if you'd want it since my cooking tastes like rubber." She said, closing her eyes with a frown and forking another steak cube into her mouth.

I guess whatever had startled her, she wasn't going to talk about it. I began eating again when Matt let out a startled cry. Shelby and I looked over to see him standing by the stove with an empty pan in his hand.

"Shelby, joking about food is way past uncool!" Matt growled.

"But there was a steak slab in there!" Shelby stared at the pan with shock.

"And I suppose it just walked away?" Matt glowered at his sister.

I glanced down at Snowy, who was finally eating her lettuce. I think she noticed me watching her because she lifted her head up and looked at me. I saw some brown flecks on her chin fur around her mouth.

There was nothing brown in the salad bowl.

I decided to keep my mouth shut and continue eating my steak, keeping my eyes averted from Snowy, who went back to crunching on her lettuce. Shelby and Matt continued arguing for a while, but I didn't listen to them. A rabbit that eats steak? Snowy is definitely different from other bunnies…


	6. Decisions

_You should know who owns who by now and if you think I own Sega or any part of the actual Sonic franchise, then you're crazy! I don't know why we need disclaimers in fanfics anyway. I mean, unless you're stating a fanmade character belongs to a friend, you already know darn well that I and the author authors don't own the franchise the cannon characters come from *rolls eyes* But now that that's out of the way…_

Chapter Six: Decisions

_**Nick's Point of View**_

Maybe my cartoon powers are rubbing off on Snowy and that's why she can roll her eyes and eat steak now. Yeah, heheh. That's gotta be it. I plopped on my bed, ice cream sundae in hand. Snowy looked up at me with big, round eyes from her place on the floor.

I looked from her to the sundae and back again. "You've gotta be kidding."

Snowy licked her lips and sat back on her feet, lifting her forelegs up and wagging her tail in a begging motion- just like I've seen in dogs!

"Whoa…" I stared at her. I hugged my sundae closer to myself for a second, then leaned down toward her in a whisper. "Did _you_ eat that steak?"

If bunnies could grin, this one was definitely grinning. I blinked and stared at her. "Can you…understand me?"

Snowy blinked and twitched her whiskers, seeming to think for a moment. She dipped her head once slightly. Yeah…my cartoon powers HAD to have rubbed off on her to be this unusual. I cocked my head to the side slightly in a fox-like fashion—fitting since I am a fox, after all.

"Can you do any tricks?" I asked.

Snowy thought for a moment, then looked at her bandages.

"Oh…I understand." I said apologetically, "I kinda forgot about that. You're probably to hurt to do any tricks, huh?"

Snowy proceeded to do a backflip-but when she landed one of her forelegs buckled beneath her and she fell down partly. I placed my sundae to the side and quickly reached over the side of my bed, picking her up and placing her back on her feet, checking to make sure her leg was okay. Snowy winced a little, but didn't seem to have any major damage from the flip.

"That's pretty impressive," I grinned at her to show her she hadn't let me down, "Let's see what other tricks you know. Sit. Lay down. Roll over." Snowy completed each of the tasks in order and then looked up at me. "Hmm…Ok, one more!" I grabbed a pencil off my nightstand and tossed it across the room, "Fetch!"

Snowy hopped over and picked up the pencil with her teeth, then ran back to me and sat up again to give it to me.

"All riiight!" I took the pencil from her- it didn't even have any bite marks on it, smart bunny- and petted her forehead.

A thought occurred to me and I pointed to a photo I'd tacked on the wall above my bed.

I pointed specifically to Matt. "Is this Shelby?" I asked.

Snowy shook her head.

"Is it Matt?" I asked.

Snowy nodded.

"Too cool." I laid back in my bed, thinking. "Snowy, you are the awesome-est pet ever!"

Snowy looked at the sundae again and licked her lips.

"You eat people-food, huh?" Snowy responded to my question by leaping onto my bed and tackling my chest, staring into my eyes as if to scream _YES!!! YESSSSS!!!!!!!!!!_

"That explains the steak then." Snowy averted her eyes from mine, looking at the sundae coyly.

"Get yer own!" I told her.

She stuck her tongue out at me and I laughed.

"I'm just kiddin' Snow. I'll get you your own bowl in a sec." Don't look at me like that, reader- how are you even reading this anyway, I don't have a diary! Besides, if she can do tricks and understand human talk then human food shouldn't be bad for her anyway.

"Stay there." I instructed Snowy, getting up and sitting her on the bed in front of my pillow, "I'll be right back."

I got past Shelby without any trouble, but when I was going back up, Matt caught me in the hallway as I was about to enter my room.

"Two bowls of ice cream? No fair, that is totally favoritism." He complained.

"It's for Snowy."

"Yeah right."

"No, really! She eats people food!"

"I won't tell Shelby, but you totally owe me for this dude." Matt looked at me, slightly annoyed, then headed back to his own room.

WOOT! DANGER AVOIDED! I rushed back into my room and shut the door, locking it so I couldn't have any surprise visitors. Snowy hadn't moved an inch from where I left her. She's pretty good at following commands. A thought struck me as I gave her the ice cream and she dove in.

"Hey, do you have an owner?" I asked, sitting on the bed.

Snowy's eyes flooded with pulsing color for a moment and she jerked back from the bowl for a moment, the whites of her eyes showing and her pupils swirling within them erratically.

_**Carlee's Point of View**_

Nick left the room and I sighed softly. Look at me. Who would ever believe this back home? I can see it now… "What did you do over the weekend, Carlee? Oh, I got kidnapped to another dimension where strange humanoids that look like the characters from my videogames exist, and I turned into a bunny and became their pet!" …right.

I looked down at my paws and I think my ears drooped a little more. Oh, my ears hang low, yes they wobble to and fro, you could tie 'em in a knot, and I'll bite you on your nose…

Performing tricks and masquerading as a semi-common house pet. I am a piece of work. They seem like such nice people…I hate tricking them. But then, th-that other one seemed really nice too, and he turned out to be really, really bad…what if these people turn out to be the same way? Or maybe they know him and will turn me in if I reveal who I am, and are just tricking me…

No…

Nick seems really nice at least. But what if he's downstairs telling Shelby and Matt that I can understand what they're saying? What if they're gonna come up here and gang up on me? Aw man…

Nick I can definitely trust…I think. Not sure about the Shelby one though…but I never tend to trust people who get between me and a piece of steak, though…

Wow, I sound really paranoid…but after what h-he did to me…can't even think straight to think without stumbling over myself.

I perked my ears as I heard two voices outside the door, and then Nick came in. He locked the door behind himself…then turned to reveal a bowl of ice cream in his hands!

Yeah, I really _must_ be paranoid if I was thinking someone who is nice enough to give me ice cream would rat me out. Dinner time when he saw the steak bits in my fur would've been the best time to tell the other two about me, and he didn't, so he must be trustworthy.

He placed the bowl on the bed in front of me and sat down. I dug into the ice cream happily. Salad is all right but I prefer meats, cheeses, breads to fruits or vegetables. After having eaten the salad earlier, the ice cream was divine by comparison. Mmm… I could feel the smooth dessert getting all over my whiskers, but I didn't care. I'd clean them off later with my paws and then everything'd be okay again. Everything. Maybe tomorrow I'll shapeshift back to my normal form…if I can…and tell them everything. Hopefully they won't be mad at me for pretending to be a "normal" bunny. I couldn't really help it though, I mean they found me in that form after all and what was I supposed to do? Say "HI, I CAN TALK!" and freak them out? After that face that Nick pulled and seeing Shelby being unafraid to punch the armadillo in the shoulder, along with the fact that Matt tried to hit her back, and me feeling hurt besides, I don't think anyone would've wanted to surprise them like that. I might've ended up a bunny-pancake for all I know!

"Hey…" Nick said after a moment, "Do you have an owner?"

I froze, and then my entire jerked backward from the bowl and my back smacked against the bed frame as a suppressed memory pulled me in, full force:

_Two voices are speaking loudly…harshly. Everything…why is everything so dark…wait…that's not darkness… I open my eyes and immediately have to close them again. I groan in pain._

"_YOU SAID SHE WOULD BE THE GREATEST WEAPON THIS WORLD WOULD EVER KNOW!!!"_

_Nazo…? Why…why is he yelling?_

"_I said there was a strong possibility that she could be a great weapon…I never guaranteed that she would be anything like her counterpart in the other Mobius." _

_Who is that?_

_I open my eyes again, flinching. A single, uncovered light bulb dimly shines light down on the whole room. I don't know where I am…I roll onto my side and can see Nazo…he's glaring at his shadow on the wall. His expression is scary. Who is he talking to?_

"_She is awake."_

_The shadow moves on its own! A black and gray hedgehog with green slit eyes steps out of the wall and stands next to Nazo. Am I going insane?_

"_Little b**ch…" Nazo starts walking toward me with a closed fist, but the shadow hedgehog holds him back._

"_She may still harness the power." He says._

_What does that mean? Ugh…my head is pounding…_

"_So she can do it?!" Nazo's expression changes…but the look of greed on his face is just as frightening as the malicious frown there only moments before._

"_Only time will tell…" The shadow hedgehog says._

_Nazo seems a lot different from when I first met him. I sit up and try to back away from the two when I realize that my body feels weird. I look at my arm and gasp. I mean- I've always been practically albino but no one save for Michael Jackson has ever been THIS white! Is that- is that fur? _

_Oh god._

_I have a tail._

_You know, any other time I think I'd be thrilled about this. But right now, trapped in a strange room with strange hedgehogs talking about strange things, I feel a lot more afraid than joyful about this change of species._

"_So she can't do it," Nazo growls at the other hedgehog, "Is that what you're saying?"_

"_I make no promises. But…" The black and gray hedgehog comes toward me, "If you do not want her I'd be more than happy to take her…to train her…perhaps give her a little…ah…stimulation, if she resists…"_

_My back hits the wall as I scramble backwards away from the hedgehog of shadows. He laughs- and I realize he has no mouth._

"_Stimulation, eh?" Nazo rubs his chin thoughtfully, then cracks his knuckles and spits to the side, "I can do that. Get out of here, Mephiles. She belongs to me- and if she doesn't change forms you owe me big time for tricking me…"_

"_I owe you nothing. If anything, you owe me…" Mephiles stares into my eyes, and then fades away, back into the shadows on the wall._

_Nazo begins walking toward me, a strange grin on his face…almost like he's bearing his teeth…_

"_Welcome to Mobius," He says, grabbing me by the front of my shirt and lifting me into the air with one hand._

_How did he get taller than me? "Wh- what are you doing?!" I ask as he pulls back his fist._

"_Stimulating you." He growls in reply, his eyes filled with sadistic glee._

_I close my eyes and brace myself for the impact-_

"SNOWY!"

I gasped as I felt Nick's hands closing around my furry body, struggling to focus my eyes on him. A collection of circles clouded my vision, with Nick's image reflection in each little 0. Finally the circles cleared away and I could see Nick's concerned face hovering in front of mine.

"Your old owner abused you…didn't he? Or she?" The yellow fox said questioningly, his ears flipped down.

I didn't bother to nod; I just stayed there, shaking in his hands.

"It's okay Snowy. You're safe here. You won't ever have to go back to him. Ever." He hugged me.

My eyes welled up with tears and I closed them, curling against Nick's chest. He picked up my ice cream bowl and put it to the side. I didn't mind; I'd lost my appetite anyway.

Nick petted my forehead and ears softly, murmuring words like any normal pet owner would for a scared pet. Except for one thing; I'm not a pet. I looked up at Nick guiltily. I'd lied long enough to him, to Shelby and Matt. But it was a bit late tonight for doing anything drastic like that.

Tomorrow.

I blinked away the tears and made up my mind. Tomorrow I had to reveal who I am…whatever I am…and hope that they'd accept me for it.


	7. A Dangerous Confrontation

_Nick belongs to Baron Von Beef Dip, for he owns himself. Shelby and Matt belong to Shelby the Hedgehog, because she owns herself…and PWNS HER LIL' BRO! HAHAHA! Oh; and by the way, I belong to me. Though at this point I seem to be Nick's pet (Eep!) Mei, Wow, and Calcifa also belong to Shelby. And the house. And everything in it. The field outside too. Let's suffice it to say SHE R TEH RULER OF TEH UNIVURSE!11!_

Chapter Seven: A Dangerous Confrontation

_**Carlee's Point of View**_

I stared as Shelby slapped a stack of pancakes on Nick's plate, mouth watering as she repeated the process for herself and for Matt. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to ask for a pancake for myself, rather than the lovingly prepared (but utterly gross) salad that Shelby had already placed on the floor for me. I leaned back against the counter, watching the unlikely trio scarf down their pancakes. To be honest I wasn't really hungry anyway. All morning I'd been thinking of how to tell them what I am…who I am. But somehow the timing just never felt right.

I should've told Nick when he woke up. But then, he probably would've thought he was dreaming. But of course I also had the chance to tell them all when Matt and Shelby were arguing about who was "going to be the very best, like no one ever was." I could've just interrupted and sang out, "To catch them is my real test! To train them is my cause!" But somehow I don't think they'd get the joke.

In fact, now, at the table, would be the optimum time for telling all three of them about me. After all, they wouldn't interrupt me with their mouths full, right?

So…what's holding me back?

_**Shelby's Point of View**_

Do ya like wafflez? Yeah we like wafflez!

Do ya like pancakez? Yeah we like pancakez!

Do ya like French-toast? Yeah we like French-toast!

Do-dododo, can't wait to get a mouthful!

The song looped over and over in my head as I chowed down on my delicious breakfast. "Mmm, pancakes. Everyone loves 'em!" I remarked—then grinned at Nick and said jokingly, "Even Snowy!"

Nick seemed to jump a little, and he glanced at the bunny before looking back at me. "Well…you never know…she just might…" He murmured.

Something seemed to be bothering him…I resolved to check back on that later as I heard someone knock on the door.

"I bet your boyfriend's back, Shel." Matt said, making googoo eyes and clasping his hands over his heart with a sigh, mocking me.

"Shut up…" I muttered, getting up and walking out of the hall. I heard soft thumping behind me; Snowy was following. Aww. What a loving pet she's turned out to be already! Maybe I can get her to give Matt some lessons, heheh…

The door started shaking from the force of the person pounding on it. Calcifa, the fire guardian of our house who resided in the basement, would not be pleased. I opened the door to see a silver male hedgehog standing there.

"Silver? Is that you? You look…different…" I said, eyeing the hedgehog up and down.

"I believe you've mistaken me for someone else. Anyway I'm here to ask if you've seen a mobian wolfgirl, about…" He raised his hand about as high as his chest, "this tall, pure white fur, light pink stripe from her nose to her tail. No clothes, rainbow eyes, seventeen years of age, and goes by the name of Carlee. Have you seen her?"

No clothes? "No, I haven't seen any wolf-mobians for a long time, not since the wolfpack came through on their annual run." I narrowed my eyes at the hedgehog, "But last I remember, the wolves were very adamant about being fully clothed, always wearing at least a toga of some sort. So, may I ask, why isn't she wearing any clothes? And why are you looking for her, she's an adult in wolfpack years. You can't be her guardian…"

"I didn't come here to be cross-examined." The hedgehog narrowed his eyes at me and his lip curled back slightly to reveal a sharp canine tooth; was he baring his teeth at me? "And anyway, as to the clothes, she's insane and most likely dangerous mobian to be around. I am in fact her appointed guardian."

"Insane and dangerous eh? Then how come I've never heard of her?" I leaned slightly against the doorframe, putting my hand out across the opening. Normally I'm not quite so rude to people off the bat but already I realized I hated him. Something about his whole demeanor repulsed me…in fact, I haven't quite held such animosity for someone upon first meeting him since meeting Eggman a while ago… "I'm part of the Freedom Fighters after all, a good friend to Sonic. Maybe you've heard of him? I think if there were any insane wolves around he would've known and warned me about them by now."

The hedgehog leaned to his right, looking past me and into the house. "When did you get the rabbit?" He suddenly asked.

I looked back at Snowy—and had to do a double take. She was up on her hind legs, plastered with her back to the wall and her eyes wide, staring with her fur on end at the hedgehog. "Snowy?"

"When did you get her?" The hedgehog asked again, glaring as he stared directly at the rabbit as though pinning it to the wall with his eyes.

_**Lie**_, something within me whispered. I glared with equal force at the hedgehog, moving directly in front of his vision. "Got her a few years back. She's my friend's pet. We all live in the same house." I used the word 'all' instead of 'all three of us' to make it seem like there were more of us. It's a trick Sally taught me to ward off aggressive mobians.

"What's with the bandages then?" The hedgehog persisted.

"We're playing veterinarian and she's the patient. Got any more questions or would you leave? We're eating breakfast in here!" I snapped at him.

The hedgehog stood there in thought for a moment, looking down at me, then turned and walked away.

I shut the door and double-locked it. Then I headed down the stairs to talk to Calcifa about putting up stronger defenses for the house for the next few days, since I didn't trust the silver hedgehog not to come back again.

_**Matt's Point of View**_

No one EVER sees my point of view! Not Shelby, not Nick, probably not even the stupid bunny, Greasy. Maybe I'm just too cool for these nerds. Normally Nick's cool too, but lately all he does is play with that damned bunny-rabbit. Come on, rabbits are for girls! Why don't they just toss her out on the lawn now that she's better and let her go and eat grass and do what bunnies do and let the bandages fall off on their own, like those animal rehabilitation centers do for hawks and stuff? If he wants a pet why not get something awesome, like a Reticulated Python or a baby alligator or a German Sheppard? I know there are dogs on this planet since Sonic introduced me to Muttski. Any pet would be cooler than a _bunny_. Insert giant gag here.

I listened to the heated conversation in the foyer and perked up my ears. Hmmm, sounds like someone's pissed off Shelby again. Excellent…she's such a b****. Good to hear someone other than me is getting the brunt of her anger this time. I took a glance over at Nick, who seemed to be upset by the exchange of words in the hallway. Yeesh, he's heard Shelby going off before, what's his problem? Oh, right, Greasy followed Shelby out the door.

The sound of the door shutting and several locks being set into place really got our mutual attention. He and I got up from our chairs and walked into the hallway to see Shelby storming down the cellar stairs, an angry frown on her face. Damn. She's REALLY pissed.

Nick's face went all bug-eyed and his jaw dropped to the floor comically, his ears laying back flat against his head as he gasped.

"What? What?" I asked, alarmed.

"Snowy!" He cried out, diving past me to pick up the bunny next to the door behind me.

I rolled my eyes in disgust. "She's freakin' fine, man," I started, then stopped and looked at her. She was shaking and her eyes seemed to be changing color by the second, in pulses. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeird…

_**Nick's Point of View**_

Snowy was freaking out so bad I wasn't sure what to do. She shook like a leaf in my arms…when I saw her flat up against the wall like that it reminded me of last night, when she rocketed back against the bedframe. I couldn't get her out of that trance for like two whole minutes. That's a long time for someone to be out of their head, no matter what you are.

My ears perked up as I heard Calcifa yelling downstairs. I ran down the stairs with Snowy in my arms to see what was wrong.

"Hey, wait for me!" I heard Matt call after me, but I didn't slow down, running into the cellar as fast as my legs could carry me.

"One powerful being in the house is bad enough, but TWO?" Calcifa screamed at Shelby, "Are you MAD? Extra security? _**EXTRA SECURITY?**_ You want extra security, you get that creature the heck out of my rooms!"

The flame had grown in size in his anger.

"What are you even talking about, Calcifa? No one's brought anyone powerful into the house, ever as far as I know anyway!" Shelby objected, her hands in front of her face to protect herself from the blistering heat rolling off Calcifa in waves.

"Oh yeah? What about THAT?" Calcifa pointed a flame directly at me, becoming more upset by the second.

"Nick's been here for ages and you've never had a problem with him!" Shelby frowned at Calcifa in disapproval.

"Not him, the rabbit! Or whatever the heck she is." Calcifa growled.

Shelby came over to me, holding out her arms. "Give me Snowene, please."

"What are you going to do to her?" I asked, stepping back slightly, protectively.

"Give me Snowene, Nick." Shelby's eyes flicked down, half lidded in calmness.

I hesitated, but handed Snowy over carefully. Shelby hooked her fingers under the forelimbs of Snowy, walking over to Calcifa and holding her up to present her to the flame.

"_This_ is what you're so worried about?" She asked in a bored tone.

Snowy's eyes were wide and flashing with colors, pupils dilated with fear. She quivered in Shelby's arms and ducked her head to cover her eyes with her paws.

"Yes." Calcifa said flatly.

Shelby cocked her head at him. "It's a BUNNY, Calcifa."

"It's a powerful creature of unknown origins. Sure it looks innocent and harmless right now! But remember that movie you were watching a while back, where that rabbit killed all those nights?"

Shelby swung Snowy under her left arm and face-palmed with her right. "Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail is not an accurate basis for stating the realities of danger. Snowy is NOT a killer rabbit or she would've hurt something by now. She hasn't even bit or scratched anyone!"

"Just cuz' her fur's greasy doesn't mean she's evil and all powerful." Matt chimed in from the top of the basement steps.

Calcifa made the door slam on him.

"Mark my words, Shelby, if you don't get rid of that thing, evil will befall this house and all of its occupants, including yourself!" Calcifa yelled at Shelby, "If you don't want to believe me that's perfectly fine, but I've never been wrong and I'm not wrong now!"

Shelby looked doubtfully at Snowy. The bunny's wide eyes seemed shimmery with tears. She looked back at Calcifa. "Well there's a first time for everything." She muttered, turning away from him to head back up the stairs.

She gently handed Snowy to me, then went up the stairs without taking another look back at Calcifa. I turned to the flame, which had considerably reduced its size. He glared at me and the rabbit.

"You already know it's more than it appears to be…" He said in a dangerously passive tone.

I looked down and away from him, then turned and ran up the stairs.

_Endnote: I realized that I've never posted anything from Matt's point of view, so I put in a short part about the way he sees things. According to Shelby's story, he cusses a lot, which accounts for some of the harsher language used in that segment. If you're wondering why I asterisk'd (*'d) out a certain word beginning with 'b' while leaving in full words like damn or damned, it's because of the Shadow the Hedgehog game. After beating that thing and hearing Shadow damn everything in sight, it just didn't seem like that big of a deal of a word any more. I hope no offense was taken by readers._


	8. The Open Window

_Nick belongs to Baron Von Beef Dip, for he owns himself. Shelby and Matt belong to Shelby the Hedgehog, because she owns herself…and PWNS HER LIL' BRO! HAHAHA! Oh; and by the way, I belong to me. Mei, Wow, and Calcifa also belong to Shelby. _

Chapter Eight: The Open Window

_**Carlee's Point of View**_

"_If you don't get rid of that thing, evil will befall this house and all of its occupants!"_

I lay on the kitchen floor, motionless, ears splayed out across its cool surface.

"_It's a powerful creature of unknown origins…"_

I stared blankly at the bowl of salad in front of me.

"_I've never been wrong."_

I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly.

"…Snowy?"

I opened my eyes to see Matt and Shelby crouched down beside me.

"Want a carrot, girl?" Shelby waggled a carrot in the air at me, tapping it lightly on my nose.

I turned my head away and closed my eyes. After this morning everyone had been pretty quiet around the house. Shelby, Nick, and Matt had just finished eating dinner, and Matt had already left to watch TV. Shelby had made me another salad but I wasn't hungry.

"She didn't finish her breakfast this morning either…" Nick murmured.

"Maybe bunnies don't eat as often as other pets…" Shelby suggested.

"They eat grass all the time when you see them outside." Nick replied. He sounded concerned.

"Well…just give her a while. Maybe she's sick or something. Maybe some sleep will make her feel better."

I opened my eyes to look at the clock. It was 7:30.

"Maybe…" Nick consented.

"Just put her in your bed and wrap her up and then come downstairs. When you go back up later she'll probably already be asleep."

"Okay." Nick said.

I opened my eyes as he picked me up, limp in his arms. Matt said nothing as Nick carried me up the stairs to his room.

The fox-mobian put me on the bed and petted my head and back comfortingly. "You understood every word of what Calcifa said…didn't you?" He asked, almost more of a statement than a question.

I turned my head away from him, ears drooping on the bed sheets.

"Don't worry about it. You're a great pet, Snowene. Don't let his words get you you…I know you're not evil." Nick murmured.

I gave no response.

"Good night, Snowy…" Nick pulled the covers around me, then walked out of the room, closing the door and flicking the light switch off.

I laid quietly in the bed for a few moments, then sat up. I hopped to the head of the bed, then carefully pulled myself onto the bedside table, then looked out of the window into the yard below. It would be a long way down from here. If I jumped I could seriously injure myself. My best bed would be to go out the front door, downstairs. In order to do that, I would have to wait until everyone in the house was asleep, though.

I had finally come to a decision. I had to leave here for the sake of everyone in the house. I didn't belong here and my presence was going to bring harm to people who'd been kind enough to take me in and help me without knowing me…even as a rabbit. I couldn't stay and put them in that kind of danger. It would be selfish of me, and it wasn't like I was helping them at all by staying here. It would've been nice, but it was too much of a burden to place on the shoulders of the people here.

I hopped back into the bed and fell into a light sleep. Nick came in around eleven, crawling into bed carefully so as not to awaken me. He needn't have cared. My ears picked up the sound of his footsteps outside of the door. He fell asleep maybe half an hour later, and I waited until he started softly snoring to get up again. I rubbed my head against his cheek and he smiled in his sleep, whiskers twitching. I hopped down from the bed, landing on the floor with a soft thump and hopping over to the door.

It was firmly closed. I couldn't reach it, much less get it open. I closed my eyes, wishing I was a mobian wolf again…at least then I had hands. I felt a strange sensation stir within me, like soft snow or glitter pouring over my skin. I opened my eyes to find that I had hands again…naked, white-furred hands. The doorknob wasn't very far away now, either.

I grabbed the doorknob and pulled myself back up, onto my feet. I was a little wobbly, unbalanced after being on four legs for so long. I braced myself by putting one hand on the edge of the door, stretching out my legs and arms, along with my bushy tail, then opened the door and stepped through it. I quietly closed the door behind me and looked around. I had slight night vision; enough to see shapes in the darkness around me, though not much more. I carefully made my way to the stairs and stepped down them one step at a time until I made it to the bottom. I walked over to the door when I heard a loud snort.

Matt was sleeping on the couch in the room. If I opened the door, the noise might wake him up. Plan failed. Or was it… I looked over to where the door to the basement was open. Calcifa was down there, and might've raised an alarm, though. I'd just decided against it when I suddenly noticed an open window next to the couch. Jumping through it would mean going practically right by Matt's head. I decided that was the best way out. I walked over and hoisted myself over the windowsill, lowering myself to the ground below. There was a full moon tonight, plenty of light to guide me, but also plenty of light to be seen by.

I closed my eyes and breathed in, clearing my mind and thinking only of deer. As I focused on the mental image I felt the same strange feeling as I did moments ago when changing from a bunny to a mobian. I felt myself bend forward as my center of balance shifted, and I opened my eyes when my feet touched the ground. I took a quick look at myself; to any normal person I would appear to be an albino doe. If they got close enough they'd realize that I had light pink spots on my back, along with pink hooves and a matching diamond on my head. I'd have to make sure no one got close then.

I looked back up at the house one last time, repentant that I couldn't have said goodbye to them. Then I turned and ran down the dirt road along the front of the house, toward some far mountains in the distance. I would put as much distance between me and the house as possible that night, and in doing so keep my new friends safe. They would be better off without me.

_**The Next Morning**_

_**Shelby's Point of View**_

I woke up groggily, my head clouded with the fog of the dream I'd had. I dreamt that I had gone to the window and looked out to see a mobian wolf in the front yard. She had pretty fur and a long tail; pink and white. She wasn't wearing anything. Before my eyes she changed into a deer and gracefully leapt across the yard, moonlight glinting off of her pearly pink hooves as she ran down the road and out of sight.

I shook my head at the strange dream. I've never even seen an albino deer…the only reason the wolf mobian was in it was probably because of that girl that jerk hedgehog told me about. Weird dream…

"Shelby! Shellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" I heard knocking on the trapdoor in the bottom of my floor. The ceiling was too high for Nick or Matt to reach up and knock on it, so I immediately knew the fox had to be throwing things.

"Stop throwing things, Nick! I'll be out in a minute!" I yelled at him from my bed, rolling over and curling up under the covers. Jerks insult my cooking skills and then expect me to get up at the crack of dawn to make them breakfast, the hypocrites…

"I can't find Snowy anywhere!"

"Look under your bed, she probably got trapped in the moss underneath it." I called back to him, closing my eyes and snorting.

"No! I looked everywhere and she's gone! And Calcifa's cheering about it!"

"What?" I got up and swung out of bed, shaking out my quills and brushing them back with my fingers. "All right, all right, I'm comin'."

I opened the trapdoor and swung out of it, pulling it closed and latching it over top of me and falling to the floor in front of Nick. His eyes were dull and his ears were flat down on his head. Everything about him seemed upset, his feelings amplified outwardly by his cartoonish powers.

"Come on, I'm sure she's still here." I patted his shoulder and then ran out the door and down the stairs to the basement.

"Hakuna matata, what a WONDERFUL phrase!" Calcifa was singing from the basement, "The danger has left us, for the rest of our days…!"

I slammed the door open angrily and it knocked against the wall forcefully. Calcifa basically _is_ the house, since he controls all of it from the basement, and so he feels it when people are rough with his doors or punching his walls.

"Ow!" He exclaimed as the door banged into the wall, causing a dent to appear. The dent popped out a moment later. "That hurt, Shelby!"

I stomped down the stairs over to him, my arms crossed. "Where's Snowy?"

"Who?"

"You know exactly who! The bunny!" I glared at him, trying not to raise my voice.

"Hopped on out the living room window around midnight last night." Calcifa couldn't keep the smugness from his voice.

"All the windows and doors are shut and triple locked at night." I reminded him, gritting my teeth.

"Oops; I must've missed one." Calcifa grinned.

I pulled out a spray bottle of water from behind my back and pointed it at the fire demon.

"Hey, hey, hey, let's not get hasty now! She wanted to leave anyway you know!" Calcifa slide back away from me in his hearth, "She wasn't turning back and it wasn't like I scooped her up and threw her outside, don'cha'know?"

"You left a window open Calcifa! Someone could've gotten in here—and you would've felt Snowy hopping through the house! You did that on purpose and now Nick's upset and you know, so am I!" I reprimanded him, "Snowy was a good bunny but she was not evil. What you did was incredibly cruel and I'm disappointed in you. She was still hurt, she could get infected out there and die. And it's all because you were too much of a jerk to keep her in the house."

"She wanted freedom and I gave it to her; wouldn't it have been crueler to keep her inside when she wanted to leave?" Calcifa changed tactics.

I sprayed water particles on him and he sizzled and hissed.

"She's not coming back…"

I turned my head and saw Nick standing at the top of the stairs.

"Nick…" I tried to think of something to say to him.

"She was the best pet in the world…and she left….I'm a terrible owner…" He hung his head and turned, walking out of the door with his tail dragging along the ground.

"Nick, wait!" I ran up the stairs after him.

He was sitting on the couch in the living room, staring out through the window dejectedly when I caught up to him.

"Nick, I…" I started, but he interrupted me.

"You know she could do tricks? Backflips…lots of stuff…" He trailed off.

"I'm sorry, Nick." I murmured, sighing, "She's probably down some rabbit hole by now…but we could always get you a new pet. Maybe a chao?" I suggested.

"I don't want a new pet." Nick leaned back against the couch. "None of them could ever be like her…"

"Well not all pets are alike…but it doesn't hurt to try does it…?" I asked.

"Shelby…just stop. Please. I don't want a new pet. I just hope she's all right out there…When I woke up this morning and found out she was gone, I found her bandages ripped up in front of my door, but my door was closed…" He looked at me worriedly, "Do you think she'll get infected and sick out there without them?"

"Well…she was a pretty healthy bunny so probably not…" I lied. I had no clue whether she'd be fine or not.

"If you say she'll be okay…then I'm okay with it I guess…" Nick looked back out the window, "I know she's a wild animal…she needs to be free. But I'll miss her a lot…"

I nodded in agreement. "Me too…"

"Do you think she'll visit us again someday?"

"Maybe…I don't think she'll ever forget us." I answered honestly.

I didn't know how right I was…


	9. A Debt Repaid

Chapter Nine: A Debt Repaid

_**Carlee's Point of View**_

The first few days away from Shelby, Nick, and Matt's house were torture. I quickly came to regret not eating those salads the day before I left for good. My white coat became shaggy and matted, coated with dust and dirt, and my hooves weren't as shiny as they were when I had just changed to deer form and left the house. My stomach seemed forever empty but I was reluctant to eat any berries I found for fear of poison, and I couldn't bear to kill anything to eat. It was one thing to eat an already-dead steak, but to chase something down, tackle it, fight it, and kill it after seeing the mortal fear in its eyes and thinking of how happy it had been minding its own business moments before…yeah, that wasn't too appealing a notion for me.

Eventually I had to come to the next best decision; stealing. Admittedly it's not a good thing to do. I definitely don't endorse it. But starving as I was, finding an unattended picnic laid out on the side of the road or finding a pie lying on the sill outside of a house along the side of the road was too much of a temptation to simply let pass by. And besides, the owners had more food where that came from; if I didn't take it I would've died.

It's no excuse but it was my only means of survival. Short of killing innocent creatures, that is.

My journey continued. Along the way I often changed forms, getting used to shapeshifting and exercising the ability to see what I could do in each form. In deer form I could practically fly along the side of the road, but got shot at a few times by hunters in the forest (a very scary experience.) I also had a few encounters with males of the species. This was also not very fun. They got incredibly confused when I changed forms and ran away luckily, thank God. As a fox I could dig a den to sleep in, but I couldn't run over long distances nearly as fast as I could as a deer and apparently quad-foxfur is a very sought after clothing item in Mobius as a pack of bloodhounds raced after me once while I was digging a den in the side of a dirt mound near a lake one afternoon to relax.

Wolf form was great until I came across a wolf pack. The alpha male seemed to take a liking to me…waaay too much of one. The alpha female was definitely not happy with me. She tried to kill me, leaping for my throat, but I was faster than she and I took off. After that I tried to keep out of wolf form when I was in the forest. I finally came to the conclusion that survival in the forest was not easy as an animal. However, being a mobian was out of the question without some form of clothing. From the comics I'd read back on Earth I knew that a mobian girl could get along unquestioned with at least a jacket and some shoes, but it was hard to find such things in a forest and I couldn't fathom coming into contact with another mobian and having to explain why I had no clothes on.

I found an abandoned cabin near a lake and broke in one night. Finding the place unattended, I was able to use the items within for my own needs and found a nice set of clothes there. I took a long, hot shower and devoured the food in the cupboards in the kitchen, then found a blanket and flopped on the couch with a magazine. I awoke later that night feeling as though something was wrapped around my body like a rope, and panicking I accidentally changed forms. Thus I discovered the impracticality of clothes as a shapeshifter, as the articles shredded when I randomly became a lioness. I sadly pawed at the shredded shirt and skirt, then got up, shaking the torn pieces off and looking for some better-suited clothing. I eventually hit on a denim-blue jacket that I could easily slip on and off before switching forms, along with some dark pink flip flops. When I changed forms my feet would slip out easily, and I wouldn't get caught and trip in them as I would've if I'd stuck with the boots I'd originally chosen. Pants didn't work no matter what I chose, much to my embarrassment. Hopefully, since I at least had the jacket, that wouldn't matter. And besides, I didn't much expect to meet anyone else along the way anyway.

I stayed at the cabin for two nights before moving on, deciding not to press my luck. I took a zippered bag with me. In animal form I could carry it on my back as I walked or ran along. It would slow me down a bit, but that was fine. I wasn't heading anywhere in a hurry. I put a hairbrush, a box of cereal, some fruit from the kitchen, and a pillow in it. I also rolled up the warm blanket I'd been using and tied it to the bag as well. Then I set out, leaving a note at the house explaining the disappearances of the items and apologizing. Then I set out once more.

I came to the base of a small mountain finally and turned into a mountain goat to scale it, but it took a long time to go even an eighth of the way up and I was having trouble keeping my pack from falling off. I eventually made it to a small ledge and had to take a break to rest.

I closed my eyes and sighed, wishing I could turn into a mythical creature like a dragon, figuring that my shapeshifting abilities were limited to real creatures. But then that same sensation swept over me the way it had so many times before, and when I opened my eyes I had scales and magnificent wings. Indeed, I had turned into a beautiful, white dragon with light pink belly scales and a ridge of pink spikes along my back. My wing membranes were also light pink in color as well as my talons. This was great but for one thing…I didn't know how to fly.

Nevertheless it made it easier to scale the mountain, and I wrapped my tail around the pack and blanket and climbed the rest of the way to the top without nearly as much trouble as I'd been having before. The top of the mountain was concave inside, and there was a huge glassy lake. At night, when the moon rose overhead, stars reflected in its surface and beautiful flowers opened all around it. It was amazingly beautiful, and it had an untouched quality to it that made me feel safe. I resolved to stay there until I could figure out how to get back to my own world.

I kept my clothes inside my pack and stayed in dragon form, leaving the mountain top only to search for food. I had plenty of water to drink, since the lake was there, and the lake poured over one edge of the mountain to create a waterfall. I used this waterfall to keep my scales clean and shiny. Undisturbed by anyone else, I learned to fly in increments, leaping up and flapping my wings until I was able to glide across the lake. After a week of this I had strengthened my wing muscles to be able to climb up into the air and stay aloft for hours, swooping and diving in midair. With this adaption I was able to go to and from the mountain at will, in a shorter amount of time.

I also learned what kinds of powers I had as a dragon. I came to find that as a dragon I could control any element, just as I had learned from books and videogames in my homeworld. I could shoot fireballs or breathe a steady stream of fire for about as long as I could keep my breath going, or I could shoot a steady stream of water. I could also zap things with electricity and breathe a harsh wind that could push things a distance away from me. My strength was also amplified. As a dragon I was a force to be reckoned with.

I wondered if I could change to the forms of other mythical beasts as well. I proceeded to shapeshift to every form of beast I could think of (chimeras, centaurs, fairies, mermaids, kelpies) until I finally hit upon unicorns. As a unicorn I could heal things, which I tested by biting off half of a flower petal and then tapping my horn against it and visualizing it whole. I could also create a small force field of what I think was magic, which resulted in the confusion of a few bugs who then proceeded to ram it continually until I dropped it. I was also able to perform small acts of telekinesis, which I practiced until I was able to lift small boulders by thinking about lifting them. I was also able to perform these acts when I sprouted wings while in unicorn form, therefore adding flight to my repertoire of moves. When I changed to Pegasus form (no horn) I had no powers at all, though. Except the obvious ability to fly, of course. On the whole, it appeared that of all the mythical creatures I changed to, the only two that had special abilities attached were my dragon form and unicorn form. Three forms if you count unicorns with and without wings. No matter what form I took I was always white with a pink stripe or pink splotches or spots. My three headed dog form creeped me out so badly that I vowed never to change to it again. Cerberus's heads barked and bit independently of each other, but each head had a separate brain. When I changed to three headed dog form, I had three heads as well…but the other two heads appeared lifeless when I checked my reflection in the water. I was the middle head, and the other two heads were limp, lolling from side to side when I looked about. It was incredibly disconcerting.

Having explored several different forms and picking my favorites for maximum benefits, I decided to remain in dragon form for my own protection. Bugs couldn't get into my scales to bite me and I was stronger in this form than any other. I sometimes changed forms to feel the soft grass and flowers against my fur, but other than that, as a dragon I remained. I didn't return to rabbit form at all. It made me sad, thinking of the friends I'd left behind before them ever getting to know me.

Shelby, the take-charge leader with a soft side she kept hidden.

Nick, with his kind, understanding demeanor and random sense of humor.

Matt…well, I can't entirely say that I missed that one. He called me 'Greasy!'

But even though I missed seeing them and wondered how they reacted when they found I was gone, I knew that it had been for the best that I'd left. If Calcifa the flame was right and I was a danger to them, then without me underfoot they would be safe. I stayed put on the mountain, lonely but feeling pacified by the fact that I could do no harm to anyone, here.

About a month after I had left what I wanted to refer to as 'la Casa de Shelby, Nick, y Matt' I saw an airship travelling by my mountain. It wasn't often that anything came near my mountain, much less a flying hunk of metal. I didn't worry too much about it. I lay still, in plain sight on the ground by the lake, watching it cross the sky, coming near me. I didn't think it would be coming for me, so I didn't hide. As I watched, though, the airship began to sink through the sky, smoke erupting from the back of it. Odd…but I still didn't care too much. The ship continued its descent, going down near the side of my mountain. I pricked my ears toward the rapidly sinking airship, listening to yelling inside of it. Then I saw something strange.

It looked like people had actually jumped out of the aircraft and were falling. I looked closer and had to do a double take. It looked like Shelby, Nick, and Matt! Immediately I leapt up and charged across the mountain top, leaping over the waterfall and propelling toward them without thinking.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. One thought did go through my head. They had saved me…and now I would save them.

_Author's Note:_

_This is the end of Shapeshifter: Power, Pain, and Betrayal. I hope you enjoyed it, but it had to end at some point. To read more about Carlee, Shelby, Nick, Matt, and Calcifa, check out "Anything For a Friend" By author Shelby the Hedgehog. Also, it should be stated that Shelby, Nick, and Matt aren't the only ones falling out of that airship. However, to find out who else is at this moment falling to their peril near the mountain, you will have to read the fic I previously stated! =D This has been a fun companion fic to Shelby's "Anything for a Friend" and I may do other related fics in the future, but for now, this fiction is at its end. It is up to Shelby now._


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